Parkinson's disease (PD) is currently the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder, severely debilitating approximately 1-2% of the US population. The disease is caused by a selective loss of dopamine-producing neurons located in a specific region of the brain. This loss leads to significant motor function impairment and age-dependent tremors. Unfortunately there is currently no cure for PD, however a synthetic dopamine treatment (L-DOPA), temporarily alleviates symptoms.

The mechanisms of PD progression are currently unknown. However, genetic studies have identified that mutations (changes) in seven genes, including ?-synuclein, LRRK2, uchL1, parkin, PINK1, DJ-1 and ATP13A2 cause familial PD. Although the familial form of PD only affects a small portion of PD cases, uncovering the function of these genes may provide insight into the mechanisms that lead to the majority of PD cases.

One of the best strategies to study PD mechanisms is to generate experimental models that mimic the initiation and progression of PD. A number of cellular and animal models have been developed for PD research. However, a model, which closely resembles the human degeneration process of PD, is currently not available because human neurons are unable to continuously propagate (grow) in culture. Human stem cells provide an opportunity to fulfill this task because these cells can grow and be programmed to generate dopamine nerve cells (the neurons under assault in PD patients).

In this study, we propose to create stem cell lines that possess PD-associated mutations in two causative genes, PINK1 and parkin, using either rejected early stage embryos or cultured patient fibroblasts. These cell lines will in effect, represent a model of human PD degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. Our working hypothesis is that PD-associated abnormal parkin or PINK1 genes cause degeneration of stem cell-derived dopaminergic neurons, and dopaminergic neurons in vivo via the same mechanism. We will fulfill three tasks in this study; 1/ To generate the PD-stem cell (PD-SCs) line which harbor abnormal or mutant parkin or PINK1 genes; 2/ To determine the whether the PD-SCs cell lines can form into midbrain dopaminergic nerve cells; 3/ To determine whether mutations in parkin and PINK1 effect the survival of dopaminergic neurons which are derived from the PD-SCs cells. Successful completion of this study will yield novel cellular models for studying the mechanisms involved in PD initiation and progression, and further screening remedies for PD treatment.

Statement of Benefit to California:

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second leading neurodegenerative disease with no current cure available. Compared to other states, California is the highest in the incidence of this particular disease. First, California growers use approximately 250 million pounds of pesticides annually, about a quarter of all pesticides used in the US (Cal Pesticide use reporting system). A commonly used herbicide, paraquat, has been shown to induce parkinsonism in both animals and human. Other pesticides are also proposed as potential causative agents for PD. Studies have shown increased PD-caused mortality in agricultural pesticide-use counties in comparison to those non-use counties in California. Second, California has the largest Hispanic population. Studies suggest that incidence of PD is the highest among Hispanics (Van Den Eeden et al, American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol 157, pages 1015-1022, 2003). Thus, finding effective treatments of PD will significantly benefit citizens in California.

Progress Report:

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is currently the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder, severely debilitating approximately 1-2% of the US population. The disease is caused by a selective loss of dopamine-producing neurons located in a specific region of the brain. This loss leads to significant motor function impairment and age-dependent tremors. Unfortunately there is currently no cure for PD, however a synthetic dopamine treatment (L-DOPA), temporarily alleviates symptoms.

The mechanism of PD progression are currently unknown. However, genetic studies have identified that mutations (changes) in multiple genes, including α-synuclein, LRRK2, uchL1, parkin, PINK1, DJ-1 and ATP13A2 cause familial PD. Although the familial form of PD only affects a small portion of PD cases, uncovering the function of these genes may provide insight into the mechanisms that lead to the majority of PD cases.

One of the best strategies to study PD mechanisms is to generate experimental models that mimic the initiation and progression of PD. A number of cellular and animal models have been developed for PD research. However, a model, which closely resembles the human degeneration process of PD, is currently not available because human neurons are unable to continuously propagate (grow) in culture. Human stem cells provide an opportunity to fulfill this task because these cells can grow and be programmed to generate dopamine nerve cells (the neurons under assault in PD patients).

In this study, we propose to create stem cell lines that possess PD-associated mutations in two causative genes, PINK1 and parkin, using either rejected early stage embryos or cultured patient fibroblasts. These cell lines will in effect, represent a model of human PD degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. Our working hypothesis is that PD-associated abnormal parkin or PINK1 genes cause degeneration of stem cell-derived dopaminergic neurons, and dopaminergic neurons in vivo via the same mechanism. We will fulfill three tasks in this study; 1/ To generate the PD-stem cell (PD-SCs) line which harbor abnormal or mutant parkin or PINK1 genes; 2/ To determine the whether the PD-SCs cell lines can form into midbrain dopaminergic nerve cells; 3/ To determine whether mutations in parkin and PINK1 effect the survival of dopaminergic neurons which are derived from the PD-SCs cells. Successful completion of this study will yield novel cellular models for studying the mechanisms involved in PD initiation and progression, and further screening remedies for PD treatment.

During last year, we have successfully generated primary skin fibroblast cultures from PD patients harboring mutations of parkin, PINK1, and DJ-1 genes, as well as sporadic PD patients and normal individuals. By using these cells, we have already generated four induced stem cell lines expressing multiple pluripotent markers (two from PD patients and two from normal individuals. These lines can also form teratomas with cells from three germ layers using mouse as host. These findings suggest that the induced pluripotent cell lines generated in the lab are likely PD patient specific stem cells.

During the next report year, we will continue to generate more PD patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells. We will carefully characterize all lines generated in the lab as proposed. Furthermore, we will adapt protocols to differentiate the new lines into dopaminergic neurons.

Public Summary of Scientific Progress

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is currently the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder affecting approximately 1-2% of the US population. The disease is caused by a selective loss of dopamine-producing neurons located in a specific region of the brain. This loss leads to significant motor function impairment and age-dependent tremors. Unfortunately, there is currently no cure for PD, however a synthetic dopamine treatment (L-DOPA), temporarily alleviates symptoms.

Genetic studies have identified that mutations (changes) in multiple genes cause familial PD. Although the familial form of PD only affects a small portion of PD cases, uncovering the function of these genes in PD-affected dopamine-secretion neurons may provide insight into the mechanisms that lead to the majority of PD cases.

One of the best strategies to study PD mechanisms is to generate experimental models that mimic the initiation and progression of PD. A number of cellular and animal models have been developed for PD research. However, a model, which closely resembles the human degeneration process of PD, is currently not available because human neurons are unable to continuously propagate (grow) in culture. Human stem cells provide an opportunity to fulfill this task because these cells can grow and be programmed to generate dopamine nerve cells (the neurons under assault in PD patients).

In this study, we propose to create stem cell lines that possess PD-associated mutations in two causative genes, PINK1 and parkin, using either rejected early stage embryos or cultured patient fibroblasts. These cell lines will in effect, represent a model of human PD degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. Our working hypothesis is that PD-associated abnormal parkin or PINK1 genes cause degeneration of stem cell-derived dopaminergic neurons, and dopaminergic neurons in vivo via the same mechanism. We will fulfill three tasks in this study; 1/ To generate the PD-stem cell (PD-SCs) line which harbor abnormal or mutant parkin or PINK1 genes; 2/ To determine the whether the PD-SCs cell lines can form into midbrain dopaminergic nerve cells; 3/ To determine whether mutations in parkin and PINK1 effect the survival of dopaminergic neurons which are derived from the PD-SCs cells. Successful completion of this study will yield novel cellular models for studying the mechanisms involved in PD initiation and progression, and further screening remedies for PD treatment.

During last year, we have successfully obtained more primary skin fibroblast cultures from PD patients harboring mutations of parkin, PINK1, DJ-1 and PLA2G6 genes, as well as sporadic PD patients and normal control individuals. By using these cells, we have already generated 9 induced stem cell lines expressing multiple pluripotent markers (7 from PD patients and 2 from normal individuals). These lines can also form teratomas with cells from three germ layers using mouse as host. These findings suggest that the induced pluripotent cell lines generated in the lab are likely PD patient specific stem cells.

During the next report year, we will continue to generate more PD patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells. We will carefully characterize all lines generated in the lab as proposed. Furthermore, we will adapt protocols to differentiate the new lines into dopaminergic neurons.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is currently the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder, severely debilitating approximately 1-2% of the US population. The disease is caused by a selective loss of dopamine-producing neurons located in a specific region of the brain. This loss leads to significant motor function impairment and age-dependent tremors. Unfortunately there is currently no cure for PD, however a synthetic dopamine treatment (L-DOPA), temporarily alleviates symptoms.

The mechanism of PD progression is currently unknown. However, genetic studies have identified that mutations (changes) in multiple genes, including α-synuclein, LRRK2, uchL1, parkin, PINK1, DJ-1 and ATP13A2 cause familial PD. Although the familial form of PD only affects a small portion of PD cases, uncovering the function of these genes may provide insight into the mechanisms that lead to the majority of PD cases.

One of the best strategies to study PD mechanisms is to generate experimental models that mimic the initiation and progression of PD. A number of cellular and animal models have been developed for PD research. However, a model, which closely resembles the human degeneration process of PD, is currently not available because human neurons are unable to continuously propagate (grow) in culture. Human stem cells provide an opportunity to fulfill this task because these cells can grow and be programmed to generate dopamine nerve cells (the neurons under assault in PD patients).

In this study, we propose to create stem cell lines that either have the genetic background of sporadic PD patients or possess PD-associated mutations using cultured patient fibroblasts. These cell lines will in effect, represent a model of human PD degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. Our working hypothesis is that the degeneration of stem cell-derived dopaminergic neurons and dopaminergic neurons in vivo via the same mechanism. We will fulfill three tasks in this study; 1/ To generate the PD-stem cell (PD-SCs) line which either have the genetic background of sporadic PD patients or harbor PD specific gene mutantions; 2/ To determine the whether the PD-SCs cell lines can form into midbrain dopaminergic nerve cells; 3/ To determine whether mutations in parkin and PINK1 effect the survival of dopaminergic neurons which are derived from the PD-SCs cells. Successful completion of this study will yield novel cellular models for studying the mechanisms involved in PD initiation and progression, and further screening remedies for PD treatment.

During last year, we have finished to develop 15 lines of iPSCs. These include 5 lines from normal control individuals, 5 lines from sporadic Parkinson disease patients, and 5 lines from Parkinson disease patients harboring disease related mutations of PINK1, DJ-1 and PLA2G6 genes. These lines provide an unique opportunity to systematically study comparative pathophysiology of Parkinson disease using sporadic and genetic cases. Moreover, we indeed spent more than a year in optimizing the condition for differentiation of these lines. It is recognized that iPSCs are more difficult to differentiate than the hESCs. We are now able to finalize the protocols to have all lines be differentiated in vitro. Therefore, we will be able to compare differences among the controls, sporadic PD and genetic PD at the level of cell biology and molecular biology.

During the next report year, we will differentiate all lines into DA neurons and carefully the functional changes of these cells. We hope that the results will reveal some molecular basis of PD pathogenesis from these human neurons.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is currently the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder, severely debilitating approximately 1-2% of the US population. The disease is caused by a selective loss of dopamine-producing neurons located in a specific region of the brain. This loss leads to significant motor function impairment and age-dependent tremors. Unfortunately there is currently no cure for PD, however a synthetic dopamine treatment (L-DOPA), temporarily alleviates symptoms.

The mechanism of PD progression is currently unknown. However, genetic studies have identified that mutations (changes) in multiple genes, including α-synuclein, LRRK2, uchL1, parkin, PINK1, DJ-1 and ATP13A2 cause familial PD. Although the familial form of PD only affects a small portion of PD cases, uncovering the function of these genes may provide insight into the mechanisms that lead to the majority of PD cases.

One of the best strategies to study PD mechanisms is to generate experimental models that mimic the initiation and progression of PD. A number of cellular and animal models have been developed for PD research. However, a model, which closely resembles the human degeneration process of PD, is currently not available because human neurons are unable to continuously propagate (grow) in culture. Human stem cells provide an opportunity to fulfill this task because these cells can grow and be programmed to generate dopamine nerve cells (the neurons under assault in PD patients).

In this study, we propose to create stem cell lines that either have the genetic background of sporadic PD patients or possess PD-associated mutations using cultured patient fibroblasts. These cell lines will in effect, represent a model of human PD degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. Our working hypothesis is that the degeneration of stem cell-derived dopaminergic neurons and dopaminergic neurons in vivo via the same mechanism. We will fulfill three tasks in this study; 1/ To generate the PD-stem cell (PD-SCs) line which either have the genetic background of sporadic PD patients or harbor PD specific gene mutantions; 2/ To determine the whether the PD-SCs cell lines can form into midbrain dopaminergic nerve cells; 3/ To determine whether mutations in parkin and PINK1 effect the survival of dopaminergic neurons which are derived from the PD-SCs cells. Successful completion of this study will yield novel cellular models for studying the mechanisms involved in PD initiation and progression, and further screening remedies for PD treatment.

During last four years, we have finished to develop 15 lines of iPSCs. These include 5 lines from normal control individuals, 5 lines from sporadic Parkinson disease patients, and 5 lines from Parkinson disease patients harboring disease related mutations of PINK1, DJ-1 and PLA2G6 genes. These iPS lines are shown to have biochemical and genomic characteristics of human ES cells. These lines provide an unique opportunity to systematically study comparative pathophysiology of Parkinson disease using sporadic and genetic cases. Using these lines, we have identified a group of genes differentially expressed and differentially methylated between iPS cells derived from PD patients and iPS cells derived from normal control individuals. However, we recognize that iPSCs are more difficult to differentiate than the hESCs. We are yet to finalize the protocols to have all lines be differentiated in vitro. Our goal is to compare differences among the controls, sporadic PD and genetic PD at the level of cell biology and molecular biology.